In Arizona immigration hot spot, fear unwarranted

by Jack Gillum - Jul. 15, 2011 10:31 PMUSA Today

CASA GRANDE - More than 100 miles north of the Mexican border, Pinal County sheriff's Lt. Matthew Thomas is on a quiet hunt for smugglers from Mexico trekking through the desert with hefty pounds of drugs strapped to their backs.

Under the cover of a black sky with his brake lights removed and his night-vision goggles ready, Thomas and a team of police silently patrol a stretch of Interstate 8 south of Phoenix.

Thomas acknowledges that the border-related crime he sees - usually from "rip" crews stealing from those migrants - hasn't inflicted much chaos on nearby residents.

"It's not really a lot of violence against citizens," Thomas says. "Mostly, it's just criminals on criminals."

In Arizona's border towns, violent offenses such as armed robberies and homicides have fallen from 1998 to 2009, USA Today's analysis of crime stats found. The numbers run counter to claims by some officials who say a feebly secured border contributes to spillover violence and "home invasions" linked to narcotics disputes, unpaid debts and thefts of known drug stashes.

USA Today'sanalysis found that Arizona, the center of a political firestorm over immigration reform, has lower rates of crime along its border with Mexico than in the rest of the state. That's apparent even among some of the state's most visible proponents of increased border security.

"I'm not going to contest that," Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio says of the findings, conceding he has "taken a lot of heat" over his efforts to combat illegal immigration. But, he says, "I think the crackdown on immigration, connected with drugs, has reduced crime when you have these types of programs. No doubt about it in my mind."

Since 1998, Arizona cities within 30 miles of the Mexican border have among the lowest rates of crime in the state, the analysis found. In 2009, for example, about five in 10,000 border residents were victims of armed robbery; statewide, that number is more than double.

Homicides also have been lower in the same region, which consists mostly of smaller towns connected by two-lane roads.

The decreases, though, have not stemmed criticism from law-enforcement officials engaged in a war of words on border security. On one side, Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever and Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu have characterized the region near Mexico as downright lawless. "When you have American citizens who don't feel safe in their own home or free in their own country, this should be appalling to everyone," Babeu says.

Others, such as Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, say the hype is nonsense.

"I'm not sure what kind of logic people use to say that that doesn't indicate some substantial improvement on the border," Dupnik says. "The border is substantially safer. Is it safe? No. Will it ever be? No. There's no way to make that border totally safe, any more than you can make the city of Tucson totally safe."

In the Border Patrol's large Tucson Sector, authorities arrested fewer than 25,000 illegal immigrants last August; in mid-2000, that number exceeded 175,000, documents show.

At the same time, marijuana seizures have steadily increased, although officials say there hasn't been a similar uptick in violent crime.